I like John Ruiz. He was like Rocky. Did very well with relatively limited natural ability at the top/Euro level. He beat a pretty good version of Holyfield, arguably deserved the win against SNV and has a few decent wins over top contenders.

He was lucky he never ended up in the ring with Lewis or the Klitschkos though

Ruiz like Rocky? That's borderline blasphemous if you ask me.

Even though it's the movies, I'd never put Rocky and Ruiz in the same sentence. Rocky never whined or complained to the ref. Rocky never faked low blows or excessively held his opponents. If you ask me, Ruiz did a whole lot more acting his entire fight career than Rocky did in his 8 fight movie career.